15 (4), 2014

Welcome to the volume 15 Number: 4 of TOJDE,
In this issue, one article in “Note for Editor“ section and 22 articles of 43 authors from 14 different countries around the world have been published. These published articles are arrived to the TOJDE from Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, Greece, India, Indonesia, Iran, Pakistan, Russia, South Africa, Tanzania, Thailand, Turkey and USA.

Strategic plans for teaching and learning are essential, however, they tend to focus on moving a mass of stakeholders along an agreeable path. The strategy is necessary and sensible, although many times, these plans miss a key audience important to the future of education, the eager adopters. Previously, this group was called “early adopters”, however, I believe that the time in which educators become involved is not as important as their eagerness. This philosophy follows Thoreau's notion that, "If a man loses pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.” It is those, who hear different drummers that may appear to be tangent to institutional missions, although they may actually be leading initiatives, which the institution may eventually adopt. Some of the eager ideas which will be shared in this paper include Social Emotional Competency, Digital Content Creation Ecosystems, MOOCs, play with purpose maker economy fabrication labs, Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, big data learning analytics, wearable technology, the quantifiable self, the internet of things, and mobile learning. The paper describes these eager adopter ideas aligned to the 2014 NMC Horizon report; eager adopter philosophies; and eager adopter questions to help initiate and guide strategic planning discussions.

This article discusses the main trends of global education and educational problems in the Arctic and Siberian regions. The modern labor markets are changing in the Arctic. The modern labor market requires the creation of new jobs associated with the provision of the Arctic zone with food. Small food productions will be created. We will need a mobile change of professional competence of those workers who work in the Arctic zone. Global world creates global competition in education. The quality of education and research in the region is the main source of development of this region. Economic and social development of the Arctic zone is impossible without the development of modern universities in the Siberian Arctic. In the near future the number of universities in the area of the Arctic and Siberian Russia will be reduced by 2 times. In this situation a complete transition to distance learning technologies is necessary. Krasnoyarsk State Pedagogical University named after V.P. Astafijev (KSPU) has established a network of Resource Centers in Krasnoyarsk Region (Eastern Siberia, Russia). Distance Education Resource Centers are connected into a single network, with the main center in KSPU (Krasnoyarsk, Russia). The Unified Network of Resource Centers, through distance education, will provide the required professional competence for people of the Arctic and the Northern zones of Eastern Siberia.

Due to a rapid development and expansion of technology and, as a result, Web 2.0 technologies are providing both teachers and learners with new solutions to the limitations of traditional method in the field of language teaching and learning. The research compared students’ writing ability before and after they were taught through blog, a new medium or tool for written communication and interaction in many different languages around the world.
The research design is a kind of one group pretest posttest. Participants were 35 first-year students. They were divided into eight groups. Four or five students in each group created a blog, www.blogger.com, and they worked together for twelve weeks to produce six pieces of writing assignments.
Each member in the group worked through providing comments, editing and revising on the blog until the group got a final writing and submitted that to the teacher for grading. The instruments used in this study were:
Ø two writing tests
Ø a questionnaire surveying students’ attitude toward learning through blogs, and
Ø postings on blogs to reflect their learning experiences.
The results revealed that after the students worked together on weblogs, their English writing mean score of the posttest was higher than that of the pretest, and they had positive attitudes towards using weblogs in learning. Regarding cooperative learning experiences through using weblogs, most students thought that it was interesting, a new experience to work with their friends on the weblogs.

This paper addresses the lack of research into satisfaction assessment of post-graduate students of the Blended Distance Learning Master’s Course for Teachers of German as a Foreign Language offered by the Hellenic Open University. Through the compilation of previous questionnaires implemented for other DL programs and newly defined research problems in one online survey tool, this paper seeks to pin-point the correlation of initial expectance and final assessment of the blended course. Survey results on a case study population show that, even though the overall program seems to be appreciated, there are vast sections of the blended program that do not completely fulfill the expectations of the students. Furthermore, a need for further investigation and cross-referencing with respective studies is pointed out.

This paper shows the results of research activities for building the representative model of the learning process in virtual spaces (e-Learning). The formal basis of the model are supported in the analysis of models of learning assessment in virtual spaces and specifically in Dembo´s teaching learning model, the systemic approach to evaluating virtual learning by Badrul H. Khan, and the Cybernetic model for evaluating virtual learning environments. The e-Learning model is systemic and of feedback by nature. The model integrates the society, Institution of Education, virtual training platform, virtual teacher and students, and finally the assessment of student learning in virtual learning spaces supported by ICT. The model consists of fourteen processes. Processes are defined taking into account the following dimensions: identification, academic, pedagogical, educational, formative, evaluative, assessment of virtual learning and technological. The model is fundamental to the management of e-learning supported by ICT, justified by the fact that it is an operative model of the teaching-learning process in virtual spaces. The importance of having an operative model in virtual education is to project the management and decision in virtual education. Then the operational, administrative and decision phases will allow the creation of a set of indicators. These indicators will assess the process of virtual education not only in students but also in the virtual institution.

The objective of this study was to validate a scale for assessment of academic projects. As a complement, we examined its predictive ability by comparing the scores of advised/corrected projects based on the model and the final scores awarded to the work by an examining panel (approximately 10 months after the project design).
Results of Confirmatory Factor Analysis (with 161 projects) indicated convergent validity and discriminant validity.
Regression analysis revealed a positive and significant relationship between the scores of projects and final scores of the work, strengthening the claim of the usefulness of the model to minimize potential wear in advising processes.

Although complex, controversial, and contradicting, learning styles is highly influential. Distance education (DE) has experienced tremendous growth in the last few decades. The popularity of learning styles and DE necessitates research. This correlational research study was conducted to determine if there is any evidence to incorporate learning styles in DE.
The following is the research question for this study. Are students’ learning styles based on the visual, auditory, tactile model correlated to satisfaction of course format in an online undergraduate course? The participants of this study were students enrolled in three sections of the Contemporary Worldviews course at a private higher education institution (HEI). Learning styles were determined by a variant of the visual, auditory, read/write, and kinesthetic (VARK) framework. Satisfaction of course format was determined from one composite question with responses based on a Likert scale. The response rate was 53.5%. Statistical analysis determined that learning styles was not correlated to satisfaction of course format in this current study. There are implications from this study that curriculum can be designed for a single course that leaves students highly satisfied. Educators should saturate DE courses with as much variance as feasible given technology and cost limitations to account for possible learning style differences.

This study examined the use of educational technology by primary and subject teachers (i.e. secondary and high school teachers) in a small town in the eastern part of Turkey in the spring of 2012. The study examined the primary, secondary and high school teachers’
Ø personal and computer related (demographic) characteristics,
Ø their computer self-efficacy perceptions,
Ø their computer-using level in certain software,
Ø their frequency of computer use for teaching, administrative and communication objectives, and
Ø their use of educational technology preferences for preparation and teaching purposes.
In this study, all primary, secondary and high school teachers in the small town were given the questionnaires to complete. 158 teachers (n=158) completed and returned them. The study was mostly quantitative and partly qualitative. The quantitative results were analysed with SPSS (i.e. mean, Std. Deviation, frequency, percentage, ANOVA). The qualitative data were analysed with examining the participants’ responses gathered from the open-ended questions and focussing on the shared themes among the responses.
The results reveal that the teachers think that they have good computer self-efficacy perceptions, their level in certain programs is good, and they often use computers for a wide range of purposes. There are also statistical differences between;
Ø their computer self-efficacy perceptions,
Ø frequency of computer use for certain purposes, and
Ø computer level in certain programs in terms of different independent variables.

The use of online tools such as forum has helped instructors develop courses that are engaging and challenging. However, instructors want to ensure that all students maintain academic integrity when they were assigned to work in an online community. This paper investigated students’ perception and behavior of academic integrity in an online discussion forum. Data were collected from 160 students enrolled in a fundamental English course who were assigned to post and respond to the topics in a forum. A survey was administered to measure how students perceived ‘academic integrity’ as well as to investigate students’ experience of violating academic integrity. A semi-structured interview was further conducted with the involved participants to find out the reasons behind their performance. The findings revealed that students perceived some misconduct actions as not cheating, leading to behaviors of academic dishonesty. As such, students should be informed more about what they can or cannot do in order not to commit academic dishonesty.

Open and distance learning is getting more dependent on information and communication technology (ICT) and has been playing an important role in the delivery strategies of distance learning. With the advancement in technology in the field education has introduces variety of new techniques for educators and learners to enhance knowledge. Educational technologies (information and communication technology) are replacing direct teacher-student interaction. Anything that helps distance learners to communicate: learner with instructor, learner with learner and learner with the learning materials may be term as information technology. Technological advancements especially in the area of ICT allow teachers to employ various strategies that could actively engage student’s interest. This paper focuses the role of information and communication technologies (ICT) in open and distance education. This study also explores technology-based media which is very important for distance learners.

Keywords: Open and Distance Education, Technology, Media and Learning.

In distance education system use of different media enable the learners to start the course of study independently. The appearance of the internet and the expansion of web have now changed distance learning from a broadcasting way to an interactive way, and allowed connecting the learners and instructors who are geographically divided.
Technological advances have created a paradigm shift in education and the definition of distance learning, as described by James Morrison (1996), who states that telecommunications, software, and the Internet eliminate walls and boundaries. In addition, he states that an increasing number of students want and need non-traditional, flexible schedules.
Main findings of the study revealed that majority of the distance learners need growing technologies to interact with the tutors and peers for academic guidance and use of latest technologies make distance learners more up to date and helpful for better academic achievements.
Majority of the students agreed that without any training distance learner cannot use growing technologies. It was recommended that AIOU may take steps to organize a specific website for the MS/M.phil and Ph.D scholars so that they can easily interact with peers and tutors.
A comprehensive training programme may be launched to enable the tutors for using growing technologies so that they can facilitate the learners by using latest methods of teaching. Virtual classrooms can be started along with the workshops. Students and academicians of education department may use latest technologies and internet softwares which can be helpful for academic purpose.

This paper is an academic observation of an Educational Multimedia Content development-training programme funded by the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) in Tanzania. This project focused on skills development in script writing and in radio and video programme development, aimed at transforming selected subjects from text to multimedia content. The ultimate objective was to enable better and easy understanding of the lessons, for Open and Distance Learning learners. A group of 25 teachers from the Tanzania’s Institute of Adult Education participated in the training and development of the programmes. In this paper the author shares the new and exciting experiences of teachers on adding such skills to their professional career, as the development of these programmes. Author’s own participation and interviews with peers in the project were employed as methods of data collection. A total number of 13 videos and 12 radio programmes were developed over the span of six months. Five school subjects were covered, namely: English, Mathematics, Biology, History and Geography. Some of the challenges encountered in developing the programmes included: difficulties in developing a video idea from the textbooks; working as a group online in collaboration with the training consultant in another country especially in script development; memorizing words (as actors playing in the productions) and saying it on camera; and time constraints (working under pressure). The author recommends to African nations and educators in other parts of the world to access these multimedia-learning programmes online since they are OER, and to use them in their context. The video and radio programmes reflect the Tanzanian context to some extent, but most of the lessons are general for use by any country.
The paper concludes that skills development on technological innovations among ODL teachers in both formal and non-formal education system is essential towards attaining EFA goals.

Journal writing and Peer Observation in an educational context have become popular techniques, with several different types of applications. They have now been used quite widely in both language teaching and in teacher training. However, despite its reported advantages in both teaching and research, there are not many Peer Observation and Diary studies available based on the writing of experienced language teachers. The Teacher participants maintain Journal writing and Peer Observation as a means of reflective practice. They consider these practices as a mirror, which reflects the teacher’s own image as a practioner. The post-reflection discussion reveals that the teacher participants believe in reflective practice as an effective means of self-evaluation and of developing sensitivity to students’ learning. This paper examines Peer Observation and journal writing of two teachers working on the same language programme in terms of a variety of topic headings, and suggests that reflective practice can be a useful tool for both classroom research and teachers’ professional development.

Cyber ethics is the philosophical study of ethics pertaining to computer networks encompassing users' behavior, what networked computers are programmed to do, and how this affects the individuals and the society. This study aimed to investigate the students' experiences of ethics in cyber systems.In the present study, the researchers conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews in a sample of students in JahromUniversity of Medical Sciences between November 2012 and February 2013. The interviews focused on the students' experiences of online ethics. Content analysis techniques were used to code and analyze the study data.The data were gathered from 25 interviews and 5 focused groups. The extracted codes were classified into two categories of positive and negativeimplications. The main themes of the study included ethicalimplications, cyber curiosity, limitation, virtual liberty, and development of ethics in the cyber system. Considering the importance ofethicsin thevirtual systems, it is necessary to train the studentsregardingthe optimalutilizationof thecyber space. Also, the students should be trained regarding the useof technology invarious scientific fields.

The current study aims to investigate awareness of research students about the concept of plagiarism and to suggest possible ways to avoid it; a descriptive survey study was conducted. The objectives of the study were to examine the researcher’s knowledge about concept of plagiarism, knowledge about specific terminologies, types of plagiarism, and consequences of plagiarism and to suggest possible ways to avoid it. Study was delimited to the research students of Faculty of Education at PhD, M.Phil. and MA level in Allma Iqbal Open University. A sample of hundred students was selected through snowball sampling technique, five point Likert scale questionnaire was used to collect the data. Data were analyzed through descriptive statistics. Major finding were that most of the students had misconception of plagiarism, most of them were unaware about the specific terminologies and types of plagiarism. Majority of the students were unaware about the consequences of plagiarism. On the basis of findings it was concluded that they were not properly taught about the concept of plagiarism during their course work in research and it had implications on the quality of research. The major recommendations were to add sufficient material about plagiarism in research courses and students may be informed about the HEC polices about plagiarism.

The purpose of the study is to describe student’s performance in tutorial online (tuton) of Social Studies through developing the 5Es - Engage Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate- Learning Cycle Model (the 5Es-LCM). The study conducted at UT-Online portal uses the Research and Development (R&D) method. The research subjects consisted of 21 UT’s students from 16 UT’s Regional Center (UPBJJ) in Indonesia. Data collected use the documentation and validation techniques and analyzed use the descriptive-percentage techniques. Qualitatively, student’s performance is ‘low’, viewed from their activities/participations in initiation, discussion, and ask-questions forums. Qualitatively, however, the quality of their performance is 'good', viewed from processes and contents of discussion and ask-questions; timeliness in the completion and scores of assignments; and competencies achieved. Some factors cause the low of students’ performance in the tuton are the limited time for access, and technical factors.

The study focus the effectiveness of the M.A EPM progam launched through distance education system of AIOU. For this purpose the performance of heads of educational institutions with and without M.A EPM degree was analyzed keeping in view different major aspects i.e. planning strategies, managerial approaches, coordination, administration and use of financial resources. The population of the study consisted of heads of educational institutions with and without MA EPM degree in Punjab. It was found that the performance of heads with EPM degree was better while planning strategies, management, coordination, following govt. policies, preparing annual budget and using financial resources as compared to heads without EPM degree. On the basis of the conclusions of the study it was recommended that MA EPM degree may be declared compulsory for heads of educational institutions. All the universities may start MA EPM degree to fulfill the requirements of working and professional educational planners and managers of the country.

The present study narrated the forms, factors and consequences of cheating in university examinations by Unisa Open and Distance learning students from anecdotal data. The results showed that the perpetrators mostly used crib materials on paper, ruler and calculator cover. The factors that influenced examination cheating were gender, age range and regional locations of candidates. The consequences were monetary fines and suspension periods. The limitation of the study is that inferences are based on documented evidence only without verifications through interviews. The study provides some recommendations that may provide Registrars of universities with insight to tighten up examination regulations so that the credibility of degrees universities offer is upheld through awarding degrees to deserving students only.

Keywords: Forms; Factors; Cheating; Consequences Of Cheating; University Examinations; Open And Distance Learning Students

This paper aims to develop and implement a method to identify the causes of the choice of a course and the reasons for evasion in higher education. This way, we sought to identify the factors that influence student choice to opt for Higher Education Institution parsed, as well as the factors influencing its evasion. The methodology employed was the use of multivariate statistics to identify the factors that contribute to the process investigated.
The research method was the case study of a community educational institution from Southern Santa Catarina, in Brazil.
Results show that the factors that influence the choice of the Higher Education Institution are the infrastructure for the development of education, and also for the development of research and extension activities, as well as highlight the possibility of the student attending the course chosen and pursue their professional activities.

The article offers the educational information quantization method for improving content quality in Learning Management Systems. The paper considers questions concerning analysis of quality of quantized presentation of educational information, based on quantitative text parameters: average frequencies of parts of speech, used in the text; formal text readability indexes; lexical and syntactic text variety factors. The process of obtaining quantitative parameter values is focused on use of the phpMorphy morphological analysis library.

To meet the educational needs of inmates, educational scholars of the world have attempted numerous strategies and interventions designs to facilitate learning and to improve achievement. The real function of a prison is to help develop better citizens, not just better inmates.
Therefore, the present study was designed to investigate the educational needs of inmate’s prisons. The objective of study was to assess the educational needs of inmates of prisons through distance education. The sample of the study comprised of 57 inmates of graduation/master level available in the jail at the time of survey adopting cluster technique. Data collected through questionnaires was tabulated and descriptively analyzed according to 5 point Likert scale. With the help of summary obtained from Likert scale analysis, mean was calculated. The study revealed that majority of inmates was interested in further education above their obtained level. It was concluded that the inmates give too much importance to education. It was recommended that non-formal wing of Ministry of Education may include prisons while allocating funds for non-formal education and establishment of non-formal basic education schools in prisons. It was further suggested for Allama Iqbal Open University to extend its facilities for prisons to meet his motto “the education at door step”.

The most important factor that enables women to become individuals in society is education. It is also a very crucial part of rectifying the circumstances they are in. Besides formal, mass and distance education institutions, there are some other mechanisms to support women’s individuality, their personal development and improve gender equality. Basically, these social mechanisms can be governmental, academicals and union based or they can be non-governmental organizations. All these organizations offer women significant contributions in many aspects including awareness, use and protection of women rights. They also have important roles in informing women of decisions that are made against or in favor of them, letting them have a say in these decisions, fighting against violence, becoming strong individuals that have equal rights with men and having no difficulty in using these rights and lastly in education of women on these subjects. However, women need to know these mechanisms well and be aware of the laws and regulations in order to benefit from these mechanisms and use the opportunities that are legally granted for them.
The aim of this study is first to detect whether women are aware of women’s governmental and non-governmental organizations and laws, and if not, to determine the mode of delivery and educational media that they prefer and the amount of time they would allocate. To fulfill this aim, 600 women who are 18 or above and living in Eskişehir were randomly picked as the sample. They were given a 34-item questionnaire in face-to-face interviews. It was found that majority of the sample were not aware of the mechanisms and laws about women and they wish to receive education on these subjects. And they think that distance education is the best form to receive this education. At the end of the study, it was concluded that women should be informed about the future studies that will be carried out by related institutions and organizations, and furthermore, projects should be prepared and distance education programs should be designed.

Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) which was established initially as a Single mode Distance Teaching Institution (DTI) in the year 1985 opened its campus to face-to-face education in the year 2008 and thus now is a Dual mode Distance Teaching Institution (DTI). The Post Graduate Programme (Master of Science) in Dietetics and Food Service Management (MScDFSM) Programme of IGNOU offered through the Distance Learning Mode from the year 2005 has been the boon in developing human resources involved in Nutrition and Dietetics services and also serves as a mode for continuing education among the professionals on-the-job.
Accessibility to the programme is independent of the qualification earned at the Bachelor’s level as at IGNOU flexibility of the qualification is ensured for fulfilling the eligibility criteria into the MScDFSM Programme so that the diverse needs of the aspirants are accommodated at entry level itself. The Programme is unique in that it has compulsory Dissertation and Internship besides the Theory and Practical Courses.
The Self-Study is enriched by the Teacher inbuilt Self-instructional Study Materials coupled with compulsory submission of the Tutor Marked Assignments (TMA) which phase learning and initiate the didactic communication between the Academic Counsellor (who facilitate the Academic Transactions at the field level functionary - the Learner Support Centre) and the Learner. The MSc DFSM Programme of IGNOU, as the distance learning programme offered by the School of Continuing Education (SOCE) of IGNOU in the Indian Sub-Continent only.
This paper discusses how the MScDFSM Programme of IGNOU is contributing to the staff development of in-service Nutritionists and Dietitians through the distance education/learning mode in Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh, North India) Regional Centre. This paper also highlights the Institutions, which served as the Learner Support Centres from the year 2005 (when the programme was launched) till 2011 in the jurisdiction of the Lucknow Regional Centre (Uttar Pradesh, North India).
In addition, this paper elucidates the selected parameters that comprise the profile of the learners, who had enrolled in to the MScDFSM Programme of IGNOU from the year 2005 to 2011, January and July Sessions amounting to Ten Enrolment Cohorts, by using the complete enumeration methods (N=329) at the time of access into the Programme of study. In a nutshell, this paper gives a brief about the MScDFSM Programme of IGNOU, the profile of the learners enrolled in Lucknow Regional Centre (Uttar Pradesh, North India), and, the implications of the Programme towards the staff development of Nutritionist and the Dietitian at Post Graduate level through the distance education/learning mode, which is sure to have an impact in equalising Nutrition/Dietetics education opportunities through the gross access via the distance learning mode.

Keywords: Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), Dietetics and Food Service Management (MScDFSM) Programme, Nutritionists and Dietitians programme.

As a result of the rise of modern knowledge society, it has been highly required to have newer approaches and innovations in the sense of educational processes. Because of this, different methods and technologies have appeared to make the expressed requirements real. At this point, information and communication technologies have had a great role in remarkable improvements. From this perspective, the Distance Education approach and its related techniques like E-Learning, M-Learning…etc. are popular and strong elements for today’s world. In addition to the related effectiveness of the E-Learning, researchers also perform more scientific studies to support E-Learning or improve its functions and features to provide better conditions within the learning and teaching process. Today, one of the most remarkable improvement ways is using Artificial Intelligence techniques to support classical Distance Education approaches-techniques or develop newer ones to continue development of the subject area.

Recent developments in Internet technologies cause people to integrate new technologies in their daily life. Around 40% of the world population has an Internet connection today. The number of Internet users has increased more than tenfold from 2000 to 2014. Especially young generation communicate and form their relationships through social media. This yearbook, Perspectives on Social Media, presents the most recent trends in a variety of sectors like education, information services, economy, entertainment, urban planning, management, design, gaming, transportation, etc. While reading the book, it is obvious to see that no sector will remain with no social media.
This book is divided into seven sections to present trends and future predictions on social media in a variety of countries.